Sakeliga CEO Piet le Roux has welcomed the Supreme Court of Appeal’s ruling against preferential procurement regulations that disqualify contractors from doing business with state-owned companies if they are not 51% black-owned.
On Monday, the court ruled in favour of business group, Sakeliga’s bid to have the regulations declared invalid that were promulgated in 2017 by then Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Le Roux says the government’s BBBEE policy shouldn’t focus on colour, but on whether or not a company serves the South African public.
“The only thing the court said is it’s not fair to eliminate companies from the pull. You have to look at what its offering and not eliminate them simply based on their race. It’s not about the companies. It’s about ‘does it deliver the goods?’ And we want a big pull to choose from. We think that does it serve the public; does it serve the common good? We are speaking about black economic empowerment but actually, the word black is not so important.”
